Wednesday, 26 April 2017

How many of you find the continual tapping of a foot or the swinging on a chair, the fiddling of fingers or the continual tapping of a pencil end on a desk so irritating that you end up shouting at the individual, when in some cases it is not actually the individuals fault.

Pencil tapping

Millions of children all over the world are repeatedly asked to stop fiddling, often because this can disrupt the whole class of kids and the Teacher(s), or because it seems to have become a 'habit' that irritates those close to them for example:

Sitting at a table

Waiting for a bus

Waiting for a meal to arrive

At the school desk

On a school bus

On a school trip

Watching something on T.V.

Sitting in the car on a long journey

Sitting in 'what seems to them as' boring Company

Often the above are considered rude, inconsiderate and extremely distracting or irritating for others and for some this irritating habit can sadly often result in detention.

However, as much as these habits seem to be an irritant, actually they are methods that allow some individuals to concentrate, quite the reverse to the thoughts of many.

This Link connects you to a Website called Brain Highways if you scroll down to the second page and to the word proprioception, double click it, and sit back and listen to the children's point of view.

So, what does 'proprioception' mean, thanks to Wikipedia:

"one's own", "individual", and capio, capere, to take or grasp, is the sense of the relative position of neighbouring parts of the body and strength of effort being employed in movement.

On behalf of those who have a tendency to fiddle or irritatingly tap, please give them a chance and try to understand how their train of thought works in a situation that is often required for them to concentrate. Granted, there are some people who do just do this out of annoyance, but in many cases individuals need to move a limb or to feel the sensation of moving which in turn allows them to concentrate.

For the individuals who genuinely need to feel this sensation of movement there is a small tool called a fidget cube or a spinner, which could be used under a table or somewhere out of view of other students so that the Teacher or Tutor will not consider them to be a distraction for other students who do not need the sensation of movement to concentrate. These tools are inexpensive and can give the same sensation as tapping a foot, shaking a leg or swinging on a chair.

There are many different types of Fidget Cubes or Spinners all available on line at an extremely reasonable cost.

After using these small tools for a while it can reduce the need for larger movements but for some individuals these tools can encourage individuals to, over time, stop the need for movement at all.

On behalf of the millions of children who have been shouted at in the past for just this cause, please, give others a chance, understand that they need movement to concentrate, at least until their brain can be trained to do otherwise.

Thank you

For sufferers of Alzheimer's or Dementia there are also fidget tools, which are called amongst other things, twiddle muffs, you can buy these for men and women as can be seen from the below photographs. These can also help them to concentrate as well as pass many hours of their day away.